Can You Improve an Old Car's Performance by Servicing It?

[Turboman]

Originally Posted by MattFarah

yeah, for sure, the highest mileage cars I've ever seen are Volvo's, VW Bugs, and Ford and GM trucks. I put 96,000 miles in 3 years on a brand new 2002 Explorer, and aside from the 3 transmissions I went through, it ran great. On the other hand, I bought it for $41,000 in 2002 and sold it for only $7,000 in 2006, despite "running great".

Mercedes Benzs are also great to drive a lot of miles. The newer ones not so much anymore but they aren't too bad either in long term relationsships ( if the electric giszmos work right)

[Spectre]

Originally Posted by MattFarah

yeah, for sure, the highest mileage cars I've ever seen are Volvo's, VW Bugs, and Ford and GM trucks. I put 96,000 miles in 3 years on a brand new 2002 Explorer, and aside from the 3 transmissions I went through, it ran great. On the other hand, I bought it for $41,000 in 2002 and sold it for only $7,000 in 2006, despite "running great".

Even the old Series III XJs didn't chew up transmissions that fast.

Could it be that your perception of 'older' or 'higher mileage' cars is skewed considerably by only being familiar with domestic product?

[Posmo]

Originally Posted by MattFarah

yeah, for sure, the highest mileage cars I've ever seen are Volvo's, VW Bugs, and Ford and GM trucks. I put 96,000 miles in 3 years on a brand new 2002 Explorer, and aside from the 3 transmissions I went through, it ran great. On the other hand, I bought it for $41,000 in 2002 and sold it for only $7,000 in 2006, despite "running great".

So, having to do a transmission swap every 30k miles is running "great"


That's fucking ridiculous.


A friend of mine has an old W124 that has done 695k kms on an all original auto box. Hell, my Sierra is at 284k kms, and it's still on the original clutch..

[Mischief007]

Originally Posted by Posmo

So, having to do a transmission swap every 30k miles is running "great"


That's fucking ridiculous.


A friend of mine has an old W124 that has done 695k kms on an all original auto box. Hell, my Sierra is at 284k kms, and it's still on the original clutch..

Read it properly. "Aside from the 3 transmissions it went through, it ran great." That's why he got rid of it most likely because it kept eating transmissions. He didn't state that it ran great with the transmission changes. He sounded displeased in that statement and probably would have kept it if not for the transmission problems.

[NecroJoe]

It's like people who say they are in great shape when they have diabetes, high blood pressure, a fat gut and break into a sweat when they shit just because they can swing an ax or can lift children above their heads.

[Spectre]

And that was a couple of years before I swapped out the original Borg Warner transmission I destroyed for a 700R4.

When an old Series III has better reliability than your newer vehicle, there's something wrong, and it's not just due to age.

[MattFarah]

Originally Posted by Mischief007

Read it properly. "Aside from the 3 transmissions it went through, it ran great." That's why he got rid of it most likely because it kept eating transmissions. He didn't state that it ran great with the transmission changes. He sounded displeased in that statement and probably would have kept it if not for the transmission problems.

Thank you. A proper interpretation. 3 transmissions in 3 years is fucking awful. Especially since the engine, accessories, and everything else worked great in the car, it made me annoyed when the third one started to go and I bailed on the car, despite how little money I knew I'd get for it.

*having said that, the dealership replaced all three transmissions under warranty despite the third one being after the warranty expired. So at least their customer service priorities were in order. Despite that car, I would buy another Ford (mmmm..... Raptor.....)

[MadCow809]

Personally, I think an '01 spec car can be qualified as an old car. But that's purely because we (my family and I) replace our cars every 2 years or so.

However, if I was born into a family that almost never replace their cars, then I might have a different perspective about old cars. But in my personal opinion, I think an '01 spec car is somewhat old.

[GT - R]

Originally Posted by MadCow809

Personally, I think an '01 spec car can be qualified as an old car. But that's purely because we (my family and I) replace our cars every 2 years or so.

However, if I was born into a family that almost never replace their cars, then I might have a different perspective about old cars. But in my personal opinion, I think an '01 spec car is somewhat old.

Time to replace the BMW then

[captain_70s]

I consider a car 'old' if its been around longer than I have! Or generaly anything pre 1995 or so.

But my family have only ever bought second hand cars, our current car is a 2005 (I think) Skoda Octavia and was only bought a few months ago. On average our cars are 4-5 years old, although we did have a late 90s Ford Explorer and an early 90s Rover 214 in '04.

[MadCow809]

Originally Posted by GT - R

Time to replace the BMW then

lol, working on it.

Will most prob replace it before the end of 2010.

[BrettVette]

This isn't entirely related to the episode Matt, but thanks for turning me on to Jason's photography. As a CT boy and aspiring photographer, I respect what he's doing.

[brydiem]

My grandma's mazda (this is on the old cars we know of topic) has over 300 000 kms on the odometer. It has been in 2 crashes, including one where nearly the entire front end had to be replaced. It is covered in dings, pretty spotty service history and is really dirty. It is a 2001 Astina (from memory). She has just bought an new SX4 (for reasons that evade me, a Swift would suit her fine and would have cost about ten grand less) and she is trying to sell the Mazda now. Asking price? 8 GRAND. She is kidding me, I would think she would have trouble selling it for $2000!!!!!

Also, finally got a neg-rep. Think it only took about 2 points off though. Original too, "stupid bitch" is always a good insult to fall back on if you have no imagination

[blue2fire]

Great Clip. I like this show just as much as Fifth Gear.

[Austere]

Originally Posted by brydiem

"stupid bitch"

Well, whoever said that can now know that they have made a virtually powerless enemy: Me.

I do own a baseball bat, though and it's a Louisville Slugger and everything. (Manny Ramirez for the curious)


Anyway, I demand that this person be publicly named and shit and then with the gallows and the us spitting on them and the throwing of the rotten fruit and such. And there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth by the women folk. Oh, the huge manatee.

Or on the other hand there's the bit about not whining about -rep under penalty of Quiky. Hoo, that Kettle will burn you if you're not careful.

Either way, I'm really too drunk to be weighing in on this.

And that brings me abruptly back to the point: My car is quite old and when I first bought it it had been sitting in a garage (or "car-hold") for quite some time. It really did not run very well when I first bought it but a good service & tune worked wonders. It ran very smoothly afterwards. I use a very fancy synthetic oil against all recommendation and as long as I keep it well serviced it runs very nicely. Sure, the super-slippery oil drips out like a busted pipe but I have a lot of oil money and there's plenty of oil in there already anyway.

The trick is to keep every other fluid level up to spec as well. And also, the carburettors. You can't neglect the carburettors. But hey, that Jetta is from the new millennium and my car is from the days when The Beatles were still making records so you have to make allowances. You probably have electronic fuel injection and other various things too.